16 strange Christmas traditions from around the world

December 11, 2013 |Annika Toernqvist

In keeping with our own holiday tradition, we're revisiting some of the most unique Christmas customs from around the world. If gingerbread houses and Santa Claus aren't your thing, consider Greenland's pungent Kiviak, the Christmas 'crapper' or any of these other interesting traditions.

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Ukraine: Christmas trees dressed in spider webs

Spider webs in the house are typically considered at best, a nuisance, and at worst, a nightmare for the arachnophobic among us, but in Ukraine, Christmas trees are often decorated with (fake) spider webs to usher in good luck during the coming year.

The legend goes that a poverty stricken family went to bed on Christmas eve despondent because they wouldn't be able to decorate their tree. The spiders, roaming the home's walls and floors, heard the cries of the family, and took it upon themselves to decorate the tree with their webs. On Christmas day, the strands turned to gold and silver, changing the family's fortune forever.

Jamie Grill/Getty Images

4of17

Ukraine: Christmas trees dressed in spider webs

Spider webs in the house are typically considered at best, a nuisance, and at worst, a nightmare for the arachnophobic among us, but in Ukraine, Christmas trees are often decorated with (fake) spider webs to usher in good luck during the coming year.

The legend goes that a poverty stricken family went to bed on Christmas eve despondent because they wouldn't be able to decorate their tree. The spiders, roaming the home's walls and floors, heard the cries of the family, and took it upon themselves to decorate the tree with their webs. On Christmas day, the strands turned to gold and silver, changing the family's fortune forever.